Controversial anti-cancer campaign comes to Texas

No One Deserves to Die

These signs have been featured throughout many major U.S. cities, intended to raise awareness about Lung Cancer and simultaneously end the stigma attached to the disease.

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Cat lovers deserve to die.

Posters bearing that strange statement have been plastered on payphones and subways throughout numerous U.S. cities this summer, from Texas to Michigan.

Similar death wishes are aimed at good-looking people, the tattooed and other groups.

So what’s going on here?

The ad campaign, which has sparked outrage as well as confusion, does not intend to condemn people who like cats, the physically attractive or anyone else to death—quite the opposite, actually.

Welcome to the No One Deserves to Die campaign, started by the Lung Cancer Alliance to both raise awareness about lung cancer and try to end the stigma attached to the disease.

“What we’re saying is that no one deserves to die,” said Kay Cofrancesco, director of Advocacy Relations for the Lung Cancer Alliance. “Whatever your lifestyle choice is, no one deserves to die from lung cancer. We really felt we needed to do something that would grab the attention of the general public.”

Earlier this summer, ads began sprouting up all over 31 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., Dallas and New Orleans, claiming members of various groups (cat lovers, the smug, crazy old aunts, hipsters, the genetically privileged and the tattooed) deserve to die.

The campaign’s website says the stigma attached to lung cancer is one that implies those who get it give it to themselves through their choices and behaviors—mainly, cigarette smoking.

According to the website, this simply isn’t true. While it is no secret that tobacco smoking greatly increases one’s risk of obtaining lung cancer, the campaign insists there are other risk factors as well, like radon or asbestos exposure, second hand smoke, military service (certain dioxin exposure), age, environmental factors, health-related issues and family history. The campaign intends to alert people to these facts, and show that anyone can get lung cancer.

Some people feel the campaign unfairly targets people with particular characteristics, is in poor taste, and condemns people to death based on stereotypical characteristics. For one week, the posters appeared in various cities throughout the U.S. without an explanation, a website or anything to do with lung cancer.

Shelli Williams told CBS Chicago earlier this summer that the “Cat Lovers Deserve to Die” posters are “offensive to people who are animal lovers.”

According to noonedeservestodie.org, “Many people believe that if you have lung cancer you did something to deserve it. It sounds absurd, but it’s true. Lung cancer doesn’t discriminate and neither should you. Help put an end to the stigma and the disease.”

Lung cancer, according to the website, is the deadliest of the top four deadliest cancers, killing more people than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined. It is also the least funded of the four. ”One in four Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer, of which only two will survive more than five years,” the website states.

“Some people don’t think there is a lung cancer stigma, when in actuality, ask any survivor, there have been studies done that it does exist and because of the stigma, we’ve been unable to make progress in many aspects,” Cofrancesco said.

Here are the cities that have featured some form of a “No One Deserves to Die” ad: